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Pageantry with a Brazilian flair opened the 2016 Olympic Games — samba, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, the rain forest and rap. Here are some top moments from the ceremony.

Michael Phelps GlowsThe 22-time Olympic medalist glowed with more than pride as the United States flag bearer in the opening ceremony. You had to look carefully to see it on television, but Phelps was wearing a light-up jacket from team designer Ralph Lauren.

Members of the United States enter the stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Maracana Stadium on Aug. 5, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Photo credit: Lars Baron/Getty Images

Phelps, swimming in his fourth Olympics, wore a blazer that had USA illuminated on the back.

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The 31-year-old is the most decorated Olympian of all time. He came out of retirement to swim in five events in Rio.

Best shirtless moment? Tonga flag bearer Pita Taufatofua. No shirt but shining with oil. He will compete in taekwondo.

Two of Brazil's best known stars, soccer great Pele and supermodel Gisele Bündchen, were set to be part of the opening ceremony in Maracana Stadium Friday night - but then things changed.

Pele's poor health kept him from lighting the cauldron from the Olympic flame, and in announcing his withdrawal, he apologized to his fellow Brazilians for disappointing them. "And as a Brazilian, I ask God to bless all who participate in this event," he said.

In Bündchen's case what was missing was a controversial skit in which she starred, pulled from the ceremony after charges of racism.

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The skit showed her being robbed by a poor black boy, a child from one of Brazil’s favelas, in a city with high rates of crime and poverty.

The ceremony's creative director told The Washington Post the skit had been misinterpreted: that it actually depicted Bündchen protecting a food vendor after he tried to take a selfie with Bündchen and was chased by security guards. It was dropped because it was not funny, he said.

The 2016 Games were formally opened by Brazil’s leader, in this case the interim president, Michel Temer, who was jeered. That's because President Dilma Rousseff has been impeached and removed from office while she is tried, and Temer, her vice president, has been unpopular since taking over in May.

History Through Brazilian EyesBrazil did not shy away from its hundreds of years of slavery in its opening ceremony. Performers wearing weights and turning large wooden wheels depicted the African slaves who toiled in the sugar cane fields and on plantations.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 05: Dancers perform during the Geometrization segment of the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Maracana Stadium on August 5, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Photo credit: Getty Images

The New Olympic Color: GreenThese Olympic Games took the environment as a theme, beginning with the opening ceremony's depiction of the creation of Brazil's rain forests. The ceremony’s creative team said it would deliver a message for planet Earth. Each athlete will be given a seedling to plant, to create an Olympic forest in Brazil as their legacy to Rio de Janeiro.

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"They will leave a tree in Brazil," said Marco Balich, the show's lead producer. "Hopefully in two years' time we will have a wonderful Olympic forest. We will celebrate humanity and we will celebrate Rio."

Dancers perform during the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Maracana Stadium on Aug. 5, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Photo credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

The son of a coffee grower, he flew a boxy aircraft called the 14-bis in October 1906 above a field in France. It was the first public flight and in Europe, he was credited as the inventor of the airplane.

But the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, disputed that claim, disclosing they had flown first at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.